Riff on John Francis Murphy 5x7

The Painting Process

I recently completed this painting about a week and a half ago. The composition vaguely resembles one of Murphy's scenes, but deviates enough that I'm calling it a "riff" rather than a direct study. It's inspired by a painting I previously made a study of during one of my Master Series.

For my medium, I use Archival Oils brand - Classic formula. It's a quick-drying oil that I add to my paint when I need more movement, particularly during the underpainting stage. One tip I’ll pass on: decanting the medium into very small jars helps prevent oxygen exposure, which can turn it into an unusable gooey sludge over time.

The board has been prepped with house paint tinted to a color called "Deep Earth" - a lovely, natural earth tone that serves as an excellent foundation. I'm doing the underpainting with burnt umber, which works beautifully against this background.

Riff on John Francis Murphy 5×7

Color Philosophy and Approach

Deep Earth makes a great support color because I can leave portions peeking through, creating natural vibration in the painting. For many years, I used burnt sienna as my ground color, which also works wonderfully but requires more care since it can sometimes appear too saturated when the painting ages.

I believe Tonalists get vibration through using a colored ground, while Impressionists achieve it by mixing primaries close to each other. Both are effective strategies, but Tonalism offers a more subdued, poetic approach - more still and philosophical. When I first started painting, I worked primarily in an Impressionist mode, but gradually shifted into Tonalism as it deffo resonates more for me.

I love injecting color into skies. Even when painting blue skies with fluffy clouds, I'll bring in extra colors - a little Rose Madder, Purple, or Burnt Sienna. If you really observe clouds throughout your day, you'll notice they contain little rainbows of color as sunlight passes through water vapor - they're never static.

While Impressionists excel at capturing light effects, I'm more interested in the overall emotional tone of a painting achieved primarily through careful manipulation of values and color. Though I often separate values from colors when teaching, in practice, you're applying both simultaneously - every color has both a value and a hue, and both need to be right.

Working Methods

Pre-mixing colors on your palette before beginning is incredibly helpful. It allows you to consider your approach without putting brush to canvas, and serves as a great motivator - I'll often do my pre-mixing before lunch, knowing those colors are sitting there waiting, encouraging me to return and finish the painting that day.

My process typically starts with either finding a board or selecting a reference, sometimes one before the other. I've been focusing on smaller works lately, partly because the economy has made larger, more expensive pieces harder to sell. Fortunately, I enjoy working small.

The advantage of smaller paintings is efficiency - this entire scene took only about 2-2.5 hours to complete. Working at a smaller scale means sacrificing some of the subtleties present in the reference, that's a big part of the process. I aim for a painterly effect using hog bristle brushes rather than tiny sable brushes that would allow more detail.

Learning from Masters

Riffing on masters like John Francis Murphy is excellent practice. While my painting differs significantly in tree masses and other elements, it maintains the basic composition and coloration of his work. I wish I'd started doing master studies and riffs earlier in my career.

If you're interested in exploring tonalism, check out my "100 Days of Tonalism" playlist. There's a wealth of information in my various playlists that you can let run in the background while you work on your own paintings.

Resources for Learning

For those interested in my approach to Tonalism, I've distilled 13 years of painting experience into an instructional book. While much of this information appears across my YouTube videos, the book provides a structured, accessible reference you can return to repeatedly. It's designed to help you develop your own Tonalist practice, available for $60 USD with international shipping included. Also check out my YouTube Members Area for hundreds of real-time full length videos.

Until next time, take good care of yourselves and stay out of trouble!

Cheers,

Mike